How To Increase Pepper Plant Yield
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There’s nothing more disappointing than waiting all season, catering to your pepper plants only to harvest two or three measly peppers. If you’ve had this experience, try these methods to increase pepper plant yields.
There are several factors that play into pepper plant productivity throughout the growing season. With these simple guidelines, your plants will be producing more peppers than ever before. Here are the steps for how to get more peppers per plant.
In this article:
Starting Indoors
Depending on your location, you may need to give your pepper plants an early start to maximize production. If you live in hardiness zones 3-7 where the last frost is in April or May, starting plants indoors gives your pepper plants the longer growing season that they need.
In short, plant pepper seeds indoors 4-6 weeks before the last chance of frost. This date varies by location, so use your USDA hardiness zone to learn when your last frost typically occurs.
For example, here in zone 6b we plant our pepper seeds in mid to late March. However, if you lived in zone 9b, you may plant your seeds as early as January to be moved outdoors in March! Check your last Spring frost date here: Almanac.com.
Thankfully, starting your seedlings indoors is very easy and relatively cheap, using either a bright sunny window, or ideally a full spectrum grow light.
Grow Lights
There are endless options to choose from when shopping for a grow light. We use silent, high-efficiency LED lights that don’t put off too much heat. These offer natural-looking light that grows healthy young pepper plants.
See our favorite grow lights for peppers here.
We use this high-output LED light on Amazon for seedlings and larger plants before moving them outdoors. This light is also enough to grow plants fully indoors, from seedling to harvest. For a more affordable, great all-around option, check out this more budget-friendly LED unit.
Isn’t a sunny window enough?
Put simply, a sunny window is not ideal for growing peppers from seed. When your seeds sprout, they need strong, consistent light. Window sunlight is filtered, and doesn’t last long enough each day, especially in winter. With a grow light, you can provide 16+ hours of light, every day, avoiding leggy and weak pepper plants from the start
Read Next: Guide to growing hot peppers.
Avoid units that use fans if you can as they can be noisy. We also prefer the sun-like full-spectrum lights because they don’t emit aggressive purple and blue tones.
Moving Plants Outside
Hardening off plants can be a tricky process. Indoors, the new plants are not adjusted to the natural elements like wind, rain, direct sunlight and fluctuating temperatures. In order to smoothly transition your plants outside, you must do it gradually.
Recommended schedule for transitioning plants outdoors:
- For the first few days, give the plants 30 minutes of direct sunlight, or 1 hour of shade each day. Then move them back indoors or into a cool shady spot.
- Increase sun exposure by 30-60 minutes per day over the course of 1-2 weeks. Once the plants are producing new, stronger growth, they should be ready for full sun.
Some climates are more forgiving, and others harsher. Keep an eye on your plants, especially during the first few days outdoors. If the plant’s leaves are looking wilted, take them inside right away and wait until tomorrow.
Also, be sure to avoid cold nighttime temperatures. Peppers do not want to be outdoors in temps below 50°F. Never rush the process of hardening off peppers! It can lead to burnt leaves and very stressed plants.
Soil
Soil is the backbone of any healthy garden. Whether you’re growing in containers or directly in the ground, doing a soil checkup can make a world of difference to your overall yield.
Potting Soil
Many potting soils are based primarily on peat moss. This basically dead plant material that has a well-aerated composition, which is great for healthy root systems. However, they rely on added fertilizer to grow healthy plants.
We have had amazing results using this soil brand for growing peppers. It has pre-added nutrients from natural sources, and can grow impressive pepper plants with little input. However, after the first month or so of growth, I still suggest beginning a fertilizing regimen to encourage continued growth and fruiting.
In-Ground Soil
For ground soil, it is helpful to understand what is already present before making any additions. For example, after a soil test, our soil showed high levels of phosphorus, but low potassium. So we avoid adding any additional phosphorus (which can actually harm plants), and amend with nitrogen and potassium in the spring.
Tip: If you have a raised bed or garden plot, you can plant a cover crop in the fall to keep the soil healthy and the microbes active. Soil likes to have something growing in it at all times!
Container Size
If you are growing peppers in pots, you may struggle to choose a size to grow in. The size of a pepper plant is directly correlated to the size of its container.
Smaller pots = smaller plants (and yields).
You can use this knowledge to your advantage, and to achieve the results you’re looking for. If you want the biggest possible yield, grow in a 10-15 gallon container (or even larger). If you want to keep your plants compact, grow in a 1/2 gallon nursery pot.
Generally speaking, I recommend a minimum of 5 gallons for most pepper varieties. This will give your plants enough room to spread their roots and grow to a fairly large size.
Spacing
When growing in the ground, spacing plants properly is basically the equivalent of choosing a container size. Space too close, and the plants will compete for space and produce less per plant. Space too far apart, and you’ll risk wasted soil space.
In general, we usually space our pepper plants about 18 inches apart. This gives the plants enough room to spread out, but not so much that there is empty soil that goes to waste.
Fertilizing
Peppers need a healthy balance of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to grow well. For container plants, we keep it simple and use an all purpose fertilizer that provides everything they need.
Don’t overthink fertilizing. There are so many options, and for container plants you just need to give the plants a good balance of all of the macro and micro nutrients. So pick a fertilizer and feed on a regular schedule.
How Often To Feed
As a general rule, fertilize once every 1-2 weeks. You can also fertilize with every watering, or every other watering to give the plants a consistent supply of nutrients.
Note: If your fertilizer has a very high ratio of nitrogen, you may notice more foliar growth. This can come at the expense of fruit production, so keep this in mind when choosing a brand.
Read more about how to fertilize pepper plants.
Sunlight and Temperature
Pepper plants will grow best under full sunlight. This at least 6 hours of direct sunlight every day. These are ideal conditions, but most gardeners can still manage to get plenty of peppers out of less. However, the amount of sunlight will directly affect your pepper plant’s yield.
Try to find the best location in your outdoor area to get the most sunlight possible during the day, especially in the morning and mid-day. If you live near trees, moving a plant 10 feet can make a huge difference in how much sunlight it receives!
Heat Stress
Pepper plants prefer an average daytime temperature between 70-80°F. Pepper plants will often fail to set fruit if daytime temperatures are below 60°F or above 90°F. If you expect a stretch of very hot or cool weather, try to protect your pepper plants.
Heat stress can be a gardener’s nightmare. It can cause wilting leaves, sun scald, and dropping flowers. However, there are some things you can do, for both indoor and outdoor grows, to help survive a heat wave (90°F or higher).
Tips for a heat wave:
- Water (a lot)! Plants will consume much more water during a heatwave. Keep plants consistently moist. If your location struggles with high temperatures, a self-watering container may be worthwhile.
- Provide temporary shade. Use a beach umbrella or shade cloth to provide your pepper plants with some shade during the afternoon hours. Between 12-4 PM is usually the hottest part of the day.
- Expose young plants to cold temperatures before moving them outdoors. This is called the “cold treatment” and can help prepare plants for more varied temperatures.
- Keep a thermometer near your plants. Temperatures can vary dramatically in different areas of a yard. If your plants happen to be in a hot microclimate, you might consider moving them if possible.
For the most part, peppers are well-equipped for handling hot temperatures, but any plant has its limits. Watch for the common signs of heat stress like pepper plants dropping flowers, stunted growth, and wilted leaves.
Increase Pepper Yields (Video):
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I hope these pepper growing tips will help you get better yields from your plants. Share your progress with us, we love hearing from amazing pepper growers from around the world!
Calvin
One of the original Pepper Geeks! When Calvin isn’t gardening or learning more about peppers and botany, he might be traveling new places or playing some music.
I’m in zone 9b near Houston, Texas… so I’ll have to figure out what to do in the summer when it will be 95 plus on many days…. I’ll have to set up a sun shade on days I can’t move them around myself…. I will water every morning for sure….
I also live in ct.the last couple of years mid june we start with the pepper maggots to date they still creat a problem we lose about 1/4 of or crop of hot peppers but they don’t bother the cherry peppers we spray us yellow stickey boards red aple lookin stickey any help with this
Joe
im in central fl . im going to try this this.
Excellent article, I found this and studied it over the 2022/23 winter in hopes of a better 2023 growing season. The summer of 2022 my Habanero didn’t do so well I only got about 40 peppers from it. I wanted to maximize my harvest so I followed much of this to the letter. I started from seedlings vs seed. I planted in 5 gal buckets with a quality organic raised bed soil and started with a nitrogen heavy fertilizer early to maximize plant growth plucking early flowers until the plants got some size to them, then let flowers set and switched fertilizer I used a liquid fertilizer 10-15-10 for the rest of the season. I’m ecstatic about the results. From 3 plants I’ve harvested 491 fully ripe habaneros so far and the plants still have green peppers I’m hoping will ripen before the season turns too cold. ( I’m in zone 4) My plants have actually started flowering again!
Thanks so much for such a quality article.
I fertilize my peppers with liquid fertilizer (Charlie carp) every two weeks my harvest has been prolific.
Heathy plants wilt and die in three days what’s the cause
Help! My pepper plants have been decimated by my chickens TWICE already this spring. I live in Texas and it’s June which means we’ve already got temps in the 80s! My husband left the garden gate open and my chickens basically stripped all the bell peppers and jalapenos down to the stems. Some of them have a single half-developed fruit and many of them still have tiny fruits that were beginning to form. Since they’ve already been “pruned”, my instinct now is to remove all the fruits and flowers and fertilize to encourage new leaf growth and basically start over. Since this is the second time this has happened, none of the plants is over 1 foot tall.
@Liz, your instincts are good. Strip the flowers and hit it with a heavy dose of grow fertilizer to get leaf production going again. Still a good many months of excellent production to go, we’ve harvested peppers in October. Also, scream at your husband for me.
I have pepper plants in the pot,about 7 in.tall and theres a lot of tiny branches,should i let it grow?or prune it?
Probably leave it!
@Rossa Mae, Leave it and hit it hard with grow fertilizer. Bigger plants equal more fruit.
My wife makes and cans a vicious hot salsa.In the past she’s used scotch bonnets,haneros, ghost and combinations of each.This year I’m trying to grow Carolina Reaper,Brain Strain,and something called Purple Peach Ghost.My question is this:Due to the extreme scoville count on these, what would be a commensurate substitution.E.g if the recipe calls for 1 cup of diced habaneros, what would be an equivalent amount of Carolina Reaper…1 teaspoon?
@Roman, good question I guess this year with those varieties the salsa will be deadly rather than vicious.
Should I take out smaller peppers on the pepper so that others can get bigger.
@Trisha, no, you dont need to do that…., but if your plants get leggy, then pinch off a few of the top limbs.
Bell pepper plant is 8 in. Tall Already has a small pepper growing. Should I pick it
Yes, at 8″ the plant will be lucky to produce 1 full sized pod. I’d remove that and encourage more vigorous leafy growth before allowing it to set fruits.
IF you are going to have an extended period of time, a week or two with daytime temps over 90, is it alright to use light weight netting to shade them?
Absolutely, the afternoon sunshine can slow down the plant’s productivity, so some shade would be welcome.
I’ve been growing yellow jalapenos and they are never as big as jalapeno. I’m starting to think it’s the plant not being able to handle 10 peppers at a time (wich is the average amount of flowers that set fruit). Would there be another reason for the peppers being small? If it is an energy thing, how do i give it the energy to fully form the amount of peppers it wants to make?
Thanks in advance.
Hi – I think the yellow spice jalapenos are just smaller pods. We had the same result when we grew that variety last year.
I am in zone 8 and I planted my reapers in january, it is April 14th and they have flowers on them. Should I get off the flowers so the plants grow taller? I planted them last year and it took a long time for the plant to form the chillis, so i am hesitant to prune.
sorry I meant should I cut off my flowers?
Have you transplanted into their final pot yet? We usually prune flowers until they have been outside in the ground or in large pots for 2-3 weeks, then allow flower buds to form fruits.
Great advice here thank you!! I live in zone 10, can I put the seedlings covered in a plastic bag outside each morning for it to get natural sunlight instead of the led light? I don’t have space inside.
Sunlight is the best, especially if it is warm enough to put them outdoors. You may want to limit the direct sunlight time outdoors while the plants are very young, watch for leaves curling (a sign of too much light). Otherwise, outdoor sun should work well!
My ghost pepper plants have more leaves and are not producing enough fruits (peepers) what could be the reason. Your help will be appreciated.
Thanks
Hi Manu,
We have seen this happen on our plants, and found some success with the following:
– Reduce fertilizer. Nitrogen is great when the plants are growing, but can come at the cost of pepper productivity. Reduce the amount or frequency of fertilizing until you start to see fruits.
– Don’t overwater. Too much water is a bad thing. Make sure your plants are in need of water before watering.
– Check for pests. This year has been a tough one for pepper growers, aphids are running rampant. Read our post here (https://peppergeek.com/aphids-on-pepper-plants/) to learn about aphids in particular, but check for other pests too, especially under the leaves. They can cause decreased yield.
Hope some of these help, and good luck.
-Calvin